Lenovo Reorganizes by Market, Product Lines

Lenovo Group Ltd., the largest computer maker in China, and producer of the former IBM-owned ThinkPad laptop series, has announced that it’s creating two new major business units. This follows the return of Liu Chuanzhi as the chairman of Lenovo.

One is going to be focused on developed countries (aka mature markets), while the other will be focusing on emerging markets. Currently, there is a more regional focus. Lenovo said in statements today that this will allow them to focus on products from an income level rather than a regional level. In theory, it should be more efficient – there are plenty of places where mature and emerging markets are nearly side-by-side (or are in fact side-by-side).

Lenovo is also going to create two other units that are product-focused.

One is going to be the “Think” product group, with former IBMer Fran O’Sullivan at its head (ostensibly to focus on business/professional products). The other product group will be the “Idea” product group, which will be led by Lin Jun, and will be focused on consumers.

There were recent rumors that Lenovo would be buying the PC business unit of Fujitsu, but those were denied by a Lenovo executive recently.

It’s an interesting situation – there will be more of a gap between the Think/ThinkPad line and Idea/IdeaPad line, at least from what it looks like. That begs the question of whether there will ever be a ThinkPad version of Lenovo’s netbook/ultraportables like the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, and whether or not some of the technology behind the Lenovo X-series would make its way into future IdeaPad S10 variants or sequels.